[quote=FlyerInHi] I don’t want China to annex Taiwan. Taiwan now has de-facto independence but there are a lot of legal issues. I don’t think it’s for us, Americans, to get too deeply involved. [/quote]
I disagree that the US should not be involved. The strategic interest of the US is that any reunification should be the choice of the people in Taiwan. Not because the country is politically and economically strangled and forced to.
[quote=FlyerInHi] I think we need to accept the rise of China. But we should contain China by providing a moral and business alternative to Chinese authoritarianism, otherwise the countries who do business with China will follow their model. China is all business and development while US foreign policy is still Cold War thinking. Moral preaching is not enough… there needs to be wealth and development. [/quote]
That dosen’t seem correct – in fact, it’s the reverse. The US has promoted economic development in the majority of countries, especially in Asia. They allowed China to open up for investment and growth and allowed entry to WTO.
China has followed a 18/19th century mercantilism system which primary purpose is economic benefit to the home country. China’s investment in other countries is very little about business and development and more about changing the economic system of global trade back to regional mercantilism system.
Let this be clear, China is the aggressor here. While the US has been occupied in the SW Asia and ME, China has taken strategic moves to remove the current global geopolitical and economic order.
Why should the US not take a Cold War path after the open trade model has failed. On almost every strategic interest, China is challenging the US.
North Korea, Taiwan, South China Sea, Senkaku Islands, A2AD weapon systems, cyberattacks, economic espionage, trade imbalance, China 2025 (technology dev, tech handover, state backed investments and loans), Belt & Road, AIIB, etc. There’s a reason why every major country in Asia is expanding their military and it’s not because of the US. Japan had 500 air defense scrambles against PLAAF in 2017. THere will 300 submarines in the Pacific by 2030.
[quote=FlyerInHi] The peaceful reuniication of Germany is a good model. Angela Merkel is East German and East German politician are well integrated in running the country.[/quote]
Except that the a large portion of the population doesn’t want to be part of China, especially the younger population who don’t have any affinity or history with China. For that matter, neither does Hong Kong, but China has an economic stranglehold on the city.
